Below are some helpful and easy tips for parents and caregivers on literacy, child development, parent-child interaction, and child health and safety.

Literacy
Visit the library often and ask friends and relatives to give books as gifts.  Have an inviting book nook in your home.

Relate the story to your child’s own life.

Click here to see United Way’s literacy guide.

“In one small and very readable guide, you have listed excellent strategies for parents to use in reading to young children, described in useful language milestones, and suggested a wide array of age-appropriate books for the different age groups.”  --Maggie Molloy, Executive Director, Child-Parent Centers, Inc.

Child Development
Are you trying to raise a critical thinker?  There are many things you can do to help your child to make good decisions later on in life. 

• Offer lots of choice to your child.  Children should make about 75 choices per day.  Will it be your blue shirt or your red shirt today?  Your sandals or your sneakers?  The choices they have to make when they are young are not so life shattering as choices they may make when they are teenagers. 


• Allow the child to make mistakes when making choices and learn from them. Do not expect perfection.

Parent-Child Interaction
Communication can be the key to avoid arguments.  Here are some tips on how to communicate positively with your children:

• Say what you want – Instead of, “Don’t climb on the couch!” say, “Put your feet on the floor” calmly and firmly.


• Tell your child what you expect – Instead of, “Do you want to eat?” say, “It’s time to come to the table and eat.”


• Acknowledge your child’s feelings – Acknowledge what you hear and understand.  “I see that you are upset that it is time to leave the park.”


• Offer choices – “Are you going to eat your peas or your cheese first?”


• Let them know how you feel – “I feel sad when I find toys on the floor.  I want you to put them on the shelf when you are through playing.”

Child Health and Safety
Tips to get children involved in cooking and help them develop positive attitudes about foods:

• Begin by reading the recipe from start to finish together.


• Have your child help make sure you have all the ingredients.


• Your child can help gather the necessary equipment and wash any fresh produce.


• Show your child how to measure the ingredients accurately.


• Your child can pour, mix, stir, and even cut with a butter knife (and supervision).


• Don’t be afraid to get messy!


• When you're done, your helper can help with putting away the ingredients and equipment and can wipe off the counters and tables.